Ethel Burnt hair tips.Crow’s feet etched on the faceFootprints in the snow.Ruby lips flaked purple.Old, brown paper hands, stranglingdoor handles.Soft floral dresses drape around thebones.A contortion of branches. Eyes ripened with age. Bruisedhoney dews.The memories are summer.Sun kissed promises of dancing and smiling and girls.The body is autumn,Moss climbing aching arches waiting to collapse. Waiting […]
Lisa Reily – Two Poems
black tea we return to our room for cups of black teato find your message:i am dying, LOLand the day feels still, hotter than it was;my breakfast, idli and curry, dark grapes and water,feels dead in my belly.each time, it becomes harder,each time, easier;one day you will disappear.when. we stir sugar into our cups, too […]
Julian Grant – 102 Degrees of Love
102 Degrees of Love He lies there, belly swollen from ever-guilty handouts at my table. Although not old, he has the shopworn shab of a much-loved sweater passed hand-to-hand. His muzzle, now grey, bears hard iron bristles where once only soft velvet bloomed. It is his eyes, though, that are forever young, limpid pools of […]
Daniel Miess – Climate Change and The Death of Birds
Climate Change and The Death of Birds last of kin inhale hot empty air throat shrivels no flying ground littered with angel blue feathers unsung songs at twilight ring from soundless beaks dead forests buried in grief above shriveled sky children walk barren ground old green memories give way to sand sand stings […]
Creative Writing Webinars For Cancer Survivors
We are starting a new webinar series on creative writing! It will be aimed at cancer patients, survivors and caregivers who would like to write through their experiences. The series will include topics such as poetry, memoir, essays, blogging, body image, getting published and more. The series is still in the planning stages right now, […]
Daun Daemon – Bats
Bats Mama thought they were bats, the black specksthat swirled in the wintertime over the smokestackat the cotton mill beyond the railroad tracks An eight-year-old scientist, I stood fascinatedas I watched them swoop, rise, dip, twirl, and spread,shape shifting like faint faces in a cloud My sisters said they would get tangled in my hairor, […]
Joan McNerney – Night
Night Slides under door jambs,pouring through windows,painting my room black. This evening was spentwatching old movies.Song-and-dance actorslooping through gay,improbable plots. All my plates are put away,cups hanging on hooks.The towel is still moist. I blow out cinnamon candles,wafting the air with spice.Listening now to heatsputtering and dogs barking in winds. Storms pummel skeletal trees as […]
Ken Gosse – Prime Rhyme
Prime Rhyme Not all rhyme can be sublimeand rhyme abused may be a crime,but rhyme confused is just subprimewhich means that one should take the timeto find the words which will not fitand tweak them just a little bit,though sometimes you must break their bonesto show the poem proves it ownsthe words, their meaning and […]
Ramesh Dohan – Grandmother’s Kitchen
Grandmother’s Kitchen Held the spoon that fed meA pound of pepperCould buy her fame Her dishes so curriedThey amber the plates She taught me to ladleMyself full of food These are the hands that seasonedThe first of every of my tastes There is no returning to the cinnamonToast-scented school mornings. Bio Ramesh Dohan hails from […]
Mark Niedzwiedz – Being Young, 21
Being Young, 21 Being young, 21, is everythingFor wisdom does not come with ageOnly tired bones and fadeAnd maturity means accustomed toThe crumbling of a once great temple, youInvisible now, featureless, facelessThat’s the rub of the wrinkly skinnedWho live in seaside towns, with mothballs twinnedAnd all this whilst the beautiful peopleRun like gazelles, screw like […]